270 E. J. BUTLER. 



amount of iiifoctivc matter has no doubt been preserved from burn- 

 ing on tliis account, but the staff were continually impressed with 

 the importance of securing the destruction of the entire crown. 

 The danger of dissemination rapidly disappears when the cut leaves 

 are exposed to tlie heat of the sun, as is the case with most that are 

 used in the villages. In rainy weather or where supervision was slack, 

 the cut crowns were sometimes left to accumulate for some days. 

 This was a serious fault and every effort was made to check it. The 

 two important difficulties all through have been, however, the diffi- 

 culty of obtaining the co-operation of the ryots, and the difficulty 

 of securing a reasonably permanent staff. 



By December 1907 the whole of the infected area of Amalapur 

 Taluk had been worked over, and all the old cases cut out. The 

 first return visit had been paid in most villages and the second was 

 in progress. This set free a portion of the staff, and the work was 

 accordingly extended to Ramachendrapur Taluk by the beginning 

 of 1908. A considerable recrudescence in Amalapur Taluk in Janu- 

 ary and February 1908 detained about half the staff south of the 

 Gautami until the hot weather. By the 1st April, 1908, the returns 

 showed that 177,000 palms had been cut in Amalapur Taluk since 

 the beginning of the operations, and probably over a quarter of a 

 million in the whole area. The total cost incurred up to date had 

 been about Rs. 18,000 (£1,200) including pay of estabhshment 

 except the supervisors. 



In April 1908 Mr. Ferguson was transferred, and as his successor 

 Mr. W. K. Green, Special Deputy Collector, did not join until July, 

 the work suffered through want of supervision. Supervisor Balakrish- 

 na Murti was taken off in July and Sundararaman in October. 

 Three parties remained on in Amalapur, and were fully occupied 

 in dealing with the effects of the wide-spread recrudescence which 

 had occurred in the early months of the year. The greater part of 

 the staff was concentrated in Ramachendrapur where a large area had 

 to be dealt with. 



